More sports on offer for second edition of GetActive! Singapore

The aim is to attract all Singaporeans to celebrate National Day by taking part in a wide range of sporting activities across the island.

With slightly more than a week to go before the Republic's 52nd birthday, national sports agency Sport Singapore officially launched the second edition of GetActive! Singapore at the Padang yesterday.

The 12-day initiative, which started on Saturday and ends on National Day, features 20 sports and 10 para-sports .

About 10,000 participants attended the launch of Car-Free Sunday, with many participating in the 5.2km walk/run and other activities such as tai chi exercise, Pocari Sweat Workout, The Family Challenge 2017 and Active Health Capsule.

Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu flagged off the 5.2km walk/run and also tried her hand at several sports. She encouraged Singaporeans to get involved in the festivities.

She said: "No matter how old or young you are, there is a wide variety of sports and games to get people interested.

INCREASED INITIATIVES

"This is our way to get more people to adopt an active lifestyle. The number of sports and ground-up initiatives has also increased.

"With each season, we hope for this to grow, with more sports, more people and more corporates participating."

Daryl Lam, a pupil at Zhenghua Primary School, was one of those who had an enjoyable day at the Padang yesterday, taking part in activities such as the Red-X Games.

With each season, we hope for this to grow, with more sports, more people and more corporates participating. Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu

"I enjoyed the Red-X because it had a lot of challenges," said the 11-year-old.

"I also liked playing football with the other kids. One day, I want to play football as well as Fandi Ahmad."

Several SEA Games and Asean Para Games athletes, including paddler Clarence Chew and long jumper Suhairi Suhani, also attended yesterday's launch.

The Sports Festival: Get Active!@Padang will continue till Aug 8.

Members of the public can also look out for Sports Festivals in their neighbourhoods in eight other locations this weekend.

Many of the events at these Festivals are supported under the Active Enabler Programme (AEP), an initiative to support ground-up community projects through grants and endorsements.

This year, a total of 291 events are supported under the AEP.

For more information on the events, log on to www.myactivesg.com/getactivesingapore/events

Meanwhile, on Saturday, the inaugural Inclusive Sports Festival was launched at Our Tampines Hub, where members of the public got to experience what it takes for para-athletes to do sports.

The two-day festival featured more than 10 sports tryouts, including wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby, boccia and curling.

The ActiveSG Floorball Club - the latest sports academy under ActiveSG - was also launched on Saturday to help the Singapore Floorball Association promote and develop the sport here.

With more people taking up floorball - there are currently about 15,000 floorball players from more than 100 schools and 100 clubs in Singapore - the demand for venues has also increased.

The ActiveSG Floorball Club will be reaching out to schools to encourage them to open up their Dual-Use Scheme indoor sports hall for floorball usage after school hours and during the weekend.

Interested parties can visit myactivesg.com/academy/floorball for more information.